There’s something about The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales as a title that undersells the sweeping, epic nature of its story. Journeying across multiple eras throughout the millennium, Elliot and his fairy companion Faie are seeking to prevent the world from being overrun by beast tribes. Despite the understated title, it’s easy to draw comparisons to classic 2D The Legend of Zelda games, a comparison which holds true once settling in to play the game.
The first surprise to overcome when playing The Adventures of Elliot is that this is an action role-playing game, when all the previous games that Square Enix created within this HD-2D visual style leans on turn-based combat and party systems. Here it’s just Elliot and Faie, and a dungeon full of enemies and puzzles to defeat.
Our hands on started in one such dungeon, a moodily lit place of stone blocks, where oversized chicken-like enemies would appear with a mixture of bow and arrow, spears and staffs while conjuring mini tornadoes, while shield-toting crustaceans scuttle towards you and get in the way.
In response, I wielded Elliot’s sword with simple swipes and charge attacks, but with a fleshed out arsenal of weaponry available to me, I could have turned to a spear or scythe on a chain instead, for longer distance prodding and a swinging flail by another name. But then there’s the extras, from bow and arrow to bombs, a giant mallet and boomerang. It is, quite unashamedly, very Zelda-like, but those additions show how it’s trying to be a little bit more as well.
That’s so true of Faie as well, who isn’t just there to yell at you to listen to her advice, but can also unleash offensive attacks and abilities of her own, such as Ignite, which lets you set first to stuff – who doesn’t love setting things on fire in video games? Controlled with the right analogue stick, she’s a great additional element to the combat.
It’s a neat dungeon, though, with an overarching puzzle that requires you to shift and spin mirrors on pedestals to direct laser beams through the environment. This spans multiple floors, opening up doors and avenues in that of-so-satisfying, flowing fashion that this genre so often captures.
The dungeon built up to a battle with two towering Guardians, one with a greatsword and another with a pulse weapon, forcing me to prioritise what I would target first. Do i go for the sword guardian to avoid his leaping attacks, or engage the great bow guardian which lacks close range attacks?
And then I was sent out into an open world which, after the design of the dungeon, actually felt surprisingly small to me. Small is the wrong way to describe it, though. It’s condensed and dense with detail, making it feel like an abstracted overworld to me, as opposed to being the actual space. Yet you find all the little foot bridges, paths, enemies to battle, and secrets to find here. As I explore and travelled from one area to the next, it started to make more sense and feel more natural to me, such as when I was able to reach the last human settlement and see the decaying end of this world which Elliot and Faie are seeking to restore and transform through their time-hopping adventure.
But it’s not all dire straits and peril. There’s also a bit of time for some surprisingly fun minigames. As Faie grows her abilities, you can take on challenge minigames for each one, racing against the clock or trying to be a high score for elusive high rankings. They’re good fun, whether it’s constructing a maze to teleport around, requiring dextrous movement with both Elliot and Faie to remain in range, or a more straightforward challenge that’s a blend between rhythm action and shmups, guiding Faie around the screen with pixel precision.
Oh, and of course there’s cats to find and meet across the eras. Fifty of them, with a Medal of the Katzenmeister as your reward for this completionist feat.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales might have an understated title, but it feels like there’s magic within, taking that Zelda formula and wrapping it up in new robes, with new abilities and some furthered ideas. Definitely one to keep an eye on as it heads to release next month… or to play right now with the freshly released demo from the start of the game.
